X-men Apocalypse: They're the four horsemen of the apocalypse! It's the end of the world! WE WILL TEAR DOWN EVERYTHING THEY HAVE AND BUILD A NEW WORLD!
London Has Fallen: This is the most secure event IN THE WORLD! 6 of the world leaders are dead AND THE PRESIDENT IS UNACCOUNTED FOR!!!
Triple-9: They want us to do one last job - this has to be the BIGGEST ONE EVER! Let's get the Triple-9! All the cops in the city come running IT'S A CODE TO DIE FOR
And then sitting down to Deadpool, it's the simultaneous realisation that we live and die with bated breath for the endless spectacle creep which is modern big-budget cinema… and we're absolutely bloody sick of it. Here we have the smallest of small scale - as the opening credits suggest, a hero, love interest, comic relief, british villain, etc., a simple small cast - smaller even than Antman (pun intended) and yet it has the ability to keep you absolutely enthralled all the way through because each minute detail is handled with love for the craft and humour.
And, since we're speaking of 'humour', bloody hell. Deadpool is definitely one of the funniest films I've seen. I'm not the type to actually laugh at a film, I'll subjectively, quietly find them amusing, but no more than that, but Deadpool has me burst out laughing on three different occasions - it was just so fast and self-aware, with exceptionally well chosen one-liners which are an excellent homage to the comics. Deadpool's famous 4th-wall-breaking is really utilised to the fullest extent in the medium of film, and the subtler instances were the source of two of the laugh-out-loud moments, especially the 'I don't know who that guy is, maybe he'll move the plot along.' Visual comedy is a huge thing in Deadpool and they definitely got it spot on.
Thank goodness Deadpool is R-rated, as it seemed to have a lot of fun taking the piss out of the stricter sensibilities of internet and social justice culture. Thankfully, as it's very obviously parody a lot of this is done ironically, and while there's time to laugh at just how awful and unethical some of the action is, there are some genuinely touching scenes. Some come from Wade's repeated self-consciousness about meeting Vanessa post-op, which really use some excellent directing and cinematography to portray the subjective artistically, in an almost 'Beauty and the Beast' way.
Those are mostly aspects of an outsider's love of the genre, but where this combines with the insider's attention I'm also thankful that Deadpool is R-rated for its fight scenes. I mean holy shit the action set pieces are polished to the highest perfection of gratuitous gore and excellently choreographed martial arts for the perfect blend of fuckthatwasawesome. Especially, the fight nearest the end with all the principles was fuckthatwasawesome, and maybe this was because Deadpool used its small scale to proper effect, meaning that when there was a relatively large set-piece it felt even larger by comparison… and that last bit with Negasonic Teenage Warhead was especially fuckthatwasawesome if I may say so myself. Also in this was the compulsory montage of badassery which served as part of the (compulsory) origins story of the film, which, like the fight sequences, managed to capitalise on all the things that we love about such sequences and snip out all the things it had the ability to by feigning the position of outsider.
Despite the excellent marketing campaign Deadpool has benefitted from, perhaps the most astute and accurate would have just been a poster in the style of high-budjet film biopics a la 'Ryan Renolds is Deadpool', with maybe the 'is' bolded, underlined and italicised because hold shit is Renolds perfect for the role. He just effortlessly puts off the right sense for the character he's portraying, he really lives the sense of humour which is trying to be put forward in the script, and some of his improvised actions just show how natural he is for the role.
It was great to see Morena Baccarin in the film, as no less that the love interest. It's kinda interesting that she's also the love-interest in Gotham, as she also was in Firefly - full credit to her, she has truly occupied a niche as 'love interest in cool films' and she seems to be absolutely rocking it, especially in Deadpool. Not only that, she's clearly taken her best role and seamlessly adapted it into the type of film that Deadpool is, as a much feistier Venessa than her Dee can be in Gotham, and bringing a personal sense of humour which really made that relationship come alive and feel essential to the tight-knit, small-scale film.
Negasonic Teenage Warhead emerged as the surprise star of the show as just a really, really cool character. Well not 'just' that, also an interesting examination of the way in which adolescents are portrayed in films - and for once in cinema it actually comes out in a positive light, thanks to the nuanced performance of Brianna Hildebrand: No Small Parts as they always say. No such luck for the portrayal of English people in the American cinema, and I was at first slightly disappointed that the 'English villain' wasn't of the cat-stroking, satellite-laser-boasting, windsor-accent variety, but given the scale of the film the brutish character was a wonderful counterpoint in demonstrating how Deadpool is in some way good without being a hero by comparison.
Overall I'm giving Deadpool a 5/5 because it just was that bloody brilliant, and honestly has some good lessons to teach, some which we probably should have learned from Antman, about how spectacle creep isn't all-powerful and that sometimes what we want is the next new thing not necessarily the next big thing.
Please feel free to comment what you agree or disagree with, I'd be delighted to discuss, and you can leave your email address to be notified of replies or comment anonymously if you'd prefer. More reviews coming soon :)
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